[PF] Darkfire Adept: is it sacrificing too much?

[Susano-wo]

making a wizardfor a Ravenloft campaign(PF, plus Ravenloft, and UA actionpoints, and if there is something that really tickles our fancy from another source, we can consult the GM), and ended up finding the Darkfire Adept (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/prestige-classes/other-paizo/a-b/blackfire-adept)
Sounded fun, and I loved the idea of standard action summons(interpreted the class feature to give an aura of Evil+whatever your other alignment is, so my guy has an LE aura), as well as the spontaneous unholy blights and ability to cast through magic circles against evil.

Buuuut, looking at the summons, it seems that even just summoning things, it would be much better to have full casting and be casting summon monster 4(at lvl 7 right now), and the class loses 3 spellcasting levels(and getting the ability to breach magic circles would drop me 2 spellcasting levels.

Now, I know that generally any time you sack spellcasting levels you are dropping a wizards power, but it seems to hit especially hard wit hteh summoning spells, since the class of creature summoned is already low compared to you(about half your character level in CR).
on the other hand, the rest of the party consists of a Rogue/assassin/shadowdancer(that is the intended build, don't know which prestige class levels he has right now), a fighter archer, a Barbarian/Frenzied berserker build, and just now a ranger2/DruidX build with some feats to pump up his animal companion(I think?)

What do you al lthink: is is sacrificing too much, or will I not notice next to the rest of the party anyway?(oh and I should mention that I'm not an experienced wizard player, and tend to go for flavor over raw power:smalltongue:)

[Spore]

I would go Master Summoner if I were you. You sacrifice a bit of your eidolon power (to stay on par with your group) and get free summon monster SLAs.

That prestige class is beyond terrible. You would end up somewhere in Tier 4. If the demon you summon summons another evil outsider you factually increased the CR of your encounter while not providing any reward (summoning another evil outsider.

This class is a mess.

[grarrrg]

That prestige class is beyond terrible. You would end up somewhere in Tier 4. If the demon you summon summons another evil outsider you factually increased the CR of your encounter while not providing any reward (summoning another evil outsider.

This class is a mess.

Mess maybe, but no way does a 7/10 casting PrC drop a Tier 1 down to a Tier 4.
Tier 2 maybe.
The best part by far is the ability to summon into "non-summoning" areas. But given that you lose (at least) 2 casters levels...you darn well better be focused on Summoning, otherwise it is SO not worth it.

Darkfire Pact isn't all that bad either, giving you an extra 2 HD when using Planar X spells, and a variety of +1 bonuses.

The rest is much more flavorful than it is effective.

Overall pass.

[Craft (Cheese)]

As written? Yeah.

It might be a fair trade if you gave up only 1 caster level at 1st level though.

[ngilop]

There are 3 key points that I find.

1) standard action summons
2) Summoning into restricted areas
3) allowing your summons to use their OWN summoning ability.

I guess it depends on how good you and the trade off on those abiltiies are worht.. i def see this as a -1 or even -2 caster level class -3 though im a bit hesitant about

SO going to 8th level as a Darkfire adpet I think is worh it.. getting that 9th and 10th level is a waste unless slapping people with an unholy blight everytime you summon as an immediate action is something you think is worth losing a 3rd caster level over.

[Susano-wo]

master summoner could be cool, but I'm wanting ziard type casting, nto sorc, for purely personal, what-I'd-like-to-play-this-time reasons.
Do you think I'll particularly notice the drop in power if I'm not used to wizards?(most I've done is sorc/Warblade/slightly modded Jade Phoenix Mage) The only other caster also has a 2lvl drop in his spellcasting

[Alleran]

The only really useful element of the Blackfire/Darkfire Adept is the Pact class ability, since it does something similar to a 3.5e Malconvoker for the people who like planar binding.

[Zubrowka74]

You are aware that this won't fly in Ravenloft? You'll be making power check like it was your main class feature.

[Susano-wo]

We're an evil party. As in, the barb was a vampire lord in a previous life, and want to regain that power. The assassin decided that he needed to make his White Cloak of the Spider red--with fresh blood. And my character wants to forcibly create order from the chaos of life. Summoning evil creatures is gonna be like jam on our Powers Check Toast